CUTTING THE CORD - MASTER THREAD - transitioning away from cable TV & various options

[Halm]

Baz, are you going with a streaming service such as Sling?

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Baz

Finally made the call to my provider. Tech coming out Friday to swap modem and check my connection.

Going from Bundle (TV, Cable, Internet) to just Internet (High Speed Data).

Price will go from $189 to $64 per month with increase in speed from 20 to 100 megs.

Will post again after I get everything set up.....

Yup, ported the phone to google voice, dropped to the basic TV package for $10.00 plus a cable card for another $3.00 in an HDHomerun, bumped my bandwidth to 400mbps.

Lost nothing, cut bill from $140 to $70

Had thought I'd need SlingTV but after a month cancelled that as well. The basic TV package from my provider has more content for 1/3rd the cost.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Halm

Baz, are you going with a streaming service such as Sling?

Amazon Fire box and Play Station Vue.....

If you want more info...go to page 1 of this thread to find links to all cord cutting threads we've had on here the last few years.

There's a ton of info there.

Or you could just Google 'Amazon Fire box and Play Station Vue'.

You Tube is also a great source for info......

[Dave Kost]

Has anyone tried Youtube TV?

[Jims5543]

We cut the cable 3 years ago, we bought Amazon Fire TV boxes (because we are prime members) and purchased the apps we wanted. Our Direct TV bill at the time was $160 a month.

$14 a month for HBO
$9 a month for Showtime
$9 a month for Hulu
$109 a year for Prime (with free 2 day shipping on all order which I beat to death)

I then downloaded Kodi and discovered the amazing thing called Sky TV F1 coverage. It is amazing!!

I will say, initially it took some adjustment as to how we watch TV. We quickly adjusted and love the way we can watch what we want when we want.

Here is where it gets interesting:

We decided to get rid of AT&T for our internet and use Comcast since Comcast can give us 3X the speed than AT&T can where we live.

As an introductory offer we get basic cable with the Internet for 1 year. I was like cool! I will Tivo the last few F1 races on NBC and watch them.

We found we are NEVER using the cable TV feed at all, we prefer the streaming.

As far as the F1 races go, us Americans are getting shafted. The Sky coverage is on a whole different level. No commercials, commentators what do no scream out wrong cars or drivers over and over and over again, and while the Lewis bias is there, the coverage is complete, the after race coverage is on another level. Plus I do not have to be explained what DRS or KERS is over and over and over again. I will never go back to American coverage.

Bottom line, now that we are adjusted to the streaming process we do not want the fed to you cable. We will get what we want when we want it.

Oh and when there are natural disasters, i.e. Hurricane Irma, I used the internet weather sites for information and what to expect, a lot less hysterics brought to you by Publix and Home Depot.

If I really wanted local coverage, I launch you tube and stream their live feed from there.

I do not miss Cable and now that I have it, never use it. I will cancel it the moment the free part is up with no reservation.

Edit - One last point I have 3 fire box set ups in my house and one fire stick on my garage TV, I take the stick with me on vacations, if I do not like the TV lineup, I plug the stick in and get all my apps (HBO, SHOWTIME, CODI etc) like I am at home. I just have to connect to the wifi and I am good to go.

[RKDinOKC]

There is one downside to codi streaming. Now when I try to watch Over Air TV or Cable Shows I fall asleep durning the long commercial breaks and don't like having to actively watch shows by recording then FF when the commercial breaks start aka Tivo.

Found my electricity bill is lower as well because I don't have the TV on in the background anymore due to all the commercials. Only turn it on when I want to watch something.

Skysports F1, yes. Still kinda curious what ESPN is going to do. Be nice if they went after Skysports and offered similar streaming coverage.

Still don't understand why sponsors don't put logos in the corner like station identification and stop running the same commercials over and over and over and over ad nauseam (pun intended) ill people are completely sick of them.

[JavaBrewer]

I would love to "cut the cord" but am cornered. My neighbors have cable TV/Internet but since I am 400' away from the end run the cable company won't even talk to me. Scheduled 3 service requests which seem to just disappear into the atmosphere. I'm talking Cox cable. My current providers are ATT DSL and Direct TV. Paying something like $200 month for both. They suck. My internet download speed is ~ 4MB/sec. I recently got an Amazon Fire stick but it is constantly pausing to catch up. Would love to just go with high speed internet for everything but the cable company is impossible, won't even visit for a talk. 400 freaking feet. So not OT I know, just wanted to vent. My apologies.

[dad911]

Does CA have a state board of utilities? Couldn't get gas service to a house until I threatened to call the state board.......

[Jims5543]

Originally Posted by JavaBrewer

I would love to "cut the cord" but am cornered. My neighbors have cable TV/Internet but since I am 400' away from the end run the cable company won't even talk to me. Scheduled 3 service requests which seem to just disappear into the atmosphere. I'm talking Cox cable. My current providers are ATT DSL and Direct TV. Paying something like $200 month for both. They suck. My internet download speed is ~ 4MB/sec. I recently got an Amazon Fire stick but it is constantly pausing to catch up. Would love to just go with high speed internet for everything but the cable company is impossible, won't even visit for a talk. 400 freaking feet. So not OT I know, just wanted to vent. My apologies.

Back story.

10 years ago some dimwit at Comcast processed our payment $100 wrong, a $130 payment was put in as a $30 payment.

What resulted was amazing, our service was turned off, a person came knocking on our door strong arming us for the $100.

When we figured out WTF just happened we lit into them for treating us, 6 year loyal customers like thiefs. We cancelled our service and went to Direct TV.

Comcast sent a guy to our property to make sure we were not stealing the service, I pointed to the dish and told him we were done with them and VERY happy with Direct TV.

He was not satisfied, he made me cut my cox to my house at the ground then went to the pole and cut as high up as he could reach and again at the ground.

Fast forward to about 3 months ago.

We wanted faster speed, AT&T cannot give it, Comcast can. We tried to switch back, they send a tech out, he sees the destruction from the temper tantrum years ago and says he cannot hook us up.

Repeat this scene 2X.

My wife took to Instagram and Twitter and a mass email to let Comcast know our story.

Damage control went into action.

A 50 something year old lady came to our house and sat down whit us, apologized for our treatment and ramrodded a new line ran to our house and an install all within 4 days.

I would suggest you do the same. Make a mass email if you need info let me know I will ask my wife, I was impressed by the action she made happen.

[RKDinOKC]

Once paid $1000 for a hamburger because the chick at the register processed my card wrong. Luckily I got it refunded back to the card immediately and some hand written coupons from the manager for free burgers.

Also funny how they will take credit cards for payment, but won't accept copies of your statement for proof of payment.

[Baz]

Forgot to mention.....when on the phone to Internet provider to discuss downsizing, was ported over to CSR specialist who gave me an alternative package which essentially would have given me what I currently had - at a price of $129.....as compared to the $189 I had been paying.

Same bundled package - essentially same TV channels.

Now that I look at what I would pay with Play Station Vue (for the Core channel lineup) - $49 - plus the $69 I would be paying for the high speed data from my Internet provider.....it adds up to $118.....only a savings of $11/month. Then when you throw in what the Ooma charge is...probably about even.

Almost seems I'm better off just keeping the package she offered.

Thoughts?

[Baz]

These cable companies are terrible with respect to customer service.

As Clark Howard calls it..."customer NO-service"!

I just called to see if the offer still stood that was discussed yesterday and not only do they not have a record of it, the lady in their retention department said she couldn't get anything that came close to what I was quoted.

I asked that she get in touch with the person I spoke to yesterday.

She says: "I'll send her an email but I don't even know if she's working today or if she will have time to respond."

In other words....I have other things to do than help you....have a good day...

[Jims5543]

I am going to have internet with or without TV.

I think we are paying $130 a month for the fastest Internet Comcast could give us.

We would have that with or without TV. When I had Direct TV that was another $160 on top of my internet cost which was about $80 a month for speed much slower than I have no. So my total cost was $240 a month.

The TV is now bundled in, if I wanted HBO Showtime and other premium channels I am pretty sure the TV cost will be more than $130.

So now I just pay for what I want as listed above. In my opinion I am saving $100 a month give or take.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Jims5543

I am going to have internet with or without TV.---snip---

After today and yesterday's shenanigans.....I've decided just to go with the $69.99 per month for 100 mbps, hook up a digital antennae for OTA channels, and my Ooma Internet phone for a landline.

Down the road I may do something with a streaming device. I enjoy college football and movies more than anything and college football season will be over very soon so not sure I will miss much.

The tech never even showed up today - no phone call or anything. Yet the cable company was sure to send 2 prerecorded reminders to me - one last night right at 6pm and the other today just before noon.

No wonder people hate cable companies.....

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Unfortunately when net neutrality goes away the alternatives are likely to quickly die off. They’ll be crushed by Comcast, time-Warner, Verizon, etc.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

[RKDinOKC]

Have a 100mbps down/20mbps up business cable internet connection. It is expensive, $200, save $70/mo because I've had the service so long. It is the only way I can get fixed IP addresses with reverse lookups for mail servers. And enough upload speed for reliable VPN to work from home.

Would be nice to get more upload speed for that kind of money!

Love running everything thru my AppleTV(s). But content is still way too expensive. Something has gotta give.

[Halm]

Originally Posted by RKDinOKC

. . It is the only way I can get fixed IP addresses with reverse lookups for mail servers. And enough upload speed for reliable VPN to work from home.

What kind of mail server are you running? We haven't had to deal with reverse lookups in years.

[RKDinOKC]

Just making sure my servers are set up properly so I don't have to worry about any issues.
Dedicated IPs also make sure servers are not blocked because in DHCP ranges of IPs.
Also SRV records, DKIM etc.

Spammers, Malware hacker/spoofers suck.

[Halm]

Richard, thanks.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Halm

Richard, thanks.

You can't reliably run an outbound mail server on a consumer broadband providers dynamic address.

The IP blocks are known as dynamic and 99% of receiving servers will reject any mail originating from them.

Works for Richard because he pays for a business class address which will be in a known good block.

The way around it is to use known good SMTP servers.

If you want to run your server out of the house dynamic DNS will be fine inbound, usually.

For outbound configure SMTP to use either your broadband provider or gmail,

And if you don't have reverse PTR configured, you'll get bounced, a lot, even from a valid dedicated IP block